No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy, [Energy Secretary Steven] Chu replied. We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and well help the American economy and the American consumers.

Welcome to every GOP ad from now until November Mr. Secretary.

But they are working hard on improving battery power for cars. So, if you can just put up with$5-10/gallon gas for a couple of decades Obama will have it all worked out soon.

Fun bit, notice the headline on the Politico piece at the link, "Chu: DOE works to wean U.S. off oil". Yeah, that's the big news in the story.

4
More specifically, in a canonical hadith, Muhammad said: "If any of you ever pass gas or soil yourselves during prayers [breaking wudu], hold your nose and leave" (Sunan Abu Dawud): Holding one's nose and leaving implies smelling something offensivewhich is truethough people will think it was someone else who committed the offense.

Posted by: steevy at February 28, 2012 02:14 PM (7W3wI)

5
The main problem with energy efficiency is that
If you can't get the efficient thing for close to the
Same price as the inefficient item then your left
Trying to amortize the cost.

We have a problem, just give it to scientists and then voila, we have a solution.

They treat science as if it were magic.

If you think about it, that's why sci-fi and fantasy go together. From the point of view of dramatic narrative, science is the same as magic.

Posted by: AmishDude at February 28, 2012 02:16 PM (T0NGe)

7
Where will they get the Pond Scum? Thought Pelosi "drained the swamp"?

Posted by: Deli LLama at February 28, 2012 02:18 PM (ADlPJ)

8
The libs like things like this.
they like people depressed, despondent
they like people not being able to just drive where they want to
they love all this shit
yay, 1979! best. year. ever.

Posted by: BlackOrchid at February 28, 2012 02:19 PM (SB0V2)

9
From the Washington Examiner, Barry's gonna buy him a Volt when he leaves office in.....five years:

On the day of the Michigan Republican primary, President Obama spoke to
the United Auto Workers conference in Washington D.C. hailing the
success of the auto bailout, reminding them that without government
intervention GM and Chrysler would be dead.

Obama said that as president, he was proud to get into a Chevy Volt when he visited GMs Hamtramck plant in Detroit.

"I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line," he
said, "Secret Service wouldn't let me drive it, but I liked sitting in
it, it was nice, I bet it drives real good."

"And five years from now, when I'm not president anymore, I will buy
one and drive it myself," he said to the cheering crowd who chanted,
"Four more years!"

21
I just filled up. $4 a gallon. It was $3.75 last week. It's time we ween Obama from the presidency.

Posted by: robtr at February 28, 2012 02:25 PM (MtwBb)

22
obama said he wanted to raise gas prices and he is doing it. See I'm gullible that way, someone says they want kill all the Jews in Europe I believe him. Someone says they want to drive the Jews into the sea, I believe them. Someone says they want to build an atom bomb and wipe out Israel, I believe them. I have listened to obama before he guarded every word and I believe him. Every G-D damn word

But they are working hard on improving battery power for cars. So, if you can just put up with$5-10/gallon gas for a couple of decades Obama will have it all worked out soon.

---------

A couple of decades? They've already had over a century to get hybrids right!

http://tinyurl.com/6twzsuj

Posted by: Anachronda at February 28, 2012 02:26 PM (FzhYM)

28
"Secret service wouldn't let me drive it."
What a pansy. Maybe they were trying to avoid the inevitable GOP ad when he put it in a ditch.
"Go down on me, Barack."
"Uh, sorry, Michelle, the secret service won't let me."

Posted by: Michael at February 28, 2012 02:26 PM (2fJD1)

29
We're being *punished* - don't you see it?
Oh, you don't want us to "raise revenues," proles? don't like a tax increase?
well then.
how about we print money and borrow from ourselves until our currency devalues like crazy. Enjoy your backdoor taxation!

Posted by: BlackOrchid at February 28, 2012 02:26 PM (SB0V2)

30"And five years from now, when I'm not president anymore, I will buy
one and drive it myself," he said to the cheering crowd who chanted,
"Four more years!"

38
For instance, I can buy a standard gas dryer
For $400 cost of drying a load of clothes is $0.52
A load.
A high efficiency dryer cost $1000 cost to dry a
Load is $0.41 cents a load.
So I have to spend 2.5 times to save $0.11 a
Load.
It would take you over 5,000 loads to break even.
So if you average 5 loads a week it would take you
Over 5 years to start realizing any savings.

I love the hell out of you, but our kid is going through hell on earth in Shitcanistan.

Oh, I know he is. I honor him more than his Commander in Chief. More than the attention whores in that article. I didn't write that to be funny. My tone isn't self-satisfied, or smug, or even angry. It's sad.

The institutions that defend us are themselves worth defending. I look at that shit and I see another brick crumbling. Our perimeter is shrinking and I wonder sometimes if we have enough men and women of honor to fill the gaps.

50
Not Marine, but familiar with the area. Got any preferences?
Posted by: Meiczyslaw at February 28, 2012 07:31 PM (bjRNS)
What price range? There are some really nice restaurants in nearbyLa Jolla (take 52 west) that are expensive...
Posted by: wooga (Captain Trips / Jasmine Byrne 2012) at February 28, 2012 07:32 PM (vjyZP)
Well I love sea food but steak works also. Price range? Well on the Navy per diem? Ah for me my AT is like a vacation, so damn the prices.

While the cost of oil has been gradually going up......the value of our dollar has been gradually going down.

......

So the misery that we are feeling, will get worse....exponentially.....as food prices go up because of the cost of shipping/production going up. ....And at the same time, our dollars will not have the same purchasing power as they have had.

58We think that if you consider all these energy policies, including
energy efficiency, we think that we can go a long way to becoming less
dependent on oil and [diversifying] our supply and well help the
American economy and the American consumers.

The dancing "we". It means something different every other instance. ANd in the end, Chu's "we" is helping "the
American economy and the American consumers". I thought they - us, Americans and our economy - were the "we" in "our supply" or the "we" in "we can go a long way to becoming less dependent"? Who taught this Chu how to speak English? Bill Clinton?

Posted by: really ... at February 28, 2012 02:36 PM (X3lox)

59
>>"I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line," he
said, "Secret Service wouldn't let me drive it, but I liked sitting in
it, it was nice, I bet it drives real good."

I'd like to give SCOAMF a few thousand Volts fresh off the line.Just a different line.

Posted by: ontherocks at February 28, 2012 02:36 PM (ZJCDy)

60
I'm not at all impressed with this Barry guy. Seems to me he's not too in tune with reality.

62A couple of decades? They've already had over a century to get hybrids right!

A buddy of mine has an 8x10 photo of supposedly the first American electric car. I pointed out to him it had a hand crank on the front and he said it was actually closer to some sort of hybrid. The photo dates to the first decade of the 20th century.

Let's make sure we nominate the guy that started his campaign by taking a vacation and is soooooo organized in the field that he failed to make the ballot in his elected home state -or- the other guy that wants to be a Theocrat-in-Chief.

Yay! Winning!

Posted by: laceyunderalls at February 28, 2012 02:37 PM (Mae7x)

65
I'm going to CT tomorrow and I hope I can make it up and back with out having to fill up there

Posted by: nevergiveup at February 28, 2012 02:38 PM (i6RpT)

66
Pffft, any money saved by using energy efficient means will give you more money to spend on things that use energy. And I didn't even go to Harvard.

There is very obviously something going on here behind the scenes, since Senator Snowe was so aggressively campaigning for re-election, and in full campaign mode for the last year. Decisions like this  being so very much running (and winning) to very much not  do not happen this abruptly in politics. Ever.

Scandal? Or did she finally figure out how bad things are going to get and decided to get out before it hits the fan?

Posted by: Meremortal at February 28, 2012 02:40 PM (Usk3+)

76
The U.N.'s human rights chief called Tuesday for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Syria
What a comedian

Posted by: nevergiveup at February 28, 2012 02:40 PM (i6RpT)

77
Actually, the royal "we" is pretty common in scientific communication.

I think in Chu's case he is just dissipating responsibility.

Posted by: AmishDude at February 28, 2012 02:41 PM (T0NGe)

78
You're the best, Jane. I'll holler your name when I'm knocking the back out of the Empress later.

So which one of the brainiacs in the republican party are smart enough to run ads focusing on this kind of bs coming out of the Obama administration? Who is gonna make it happen?... anyone... anyone.... bueller?

Hey Priebus! Pay attention here boy! Do we have to do your job for ya?

On Wisconsin!

Posted by: Some guy you don't know in Wisconsin at February 28, 2012 02:44 PM (QK1XT)

91
If you're willing to drive a bit, the best seafood in San Diego is C Level, down on Harbor Island. You will need a reservation.

95
If you're willing to drive a bit, the best seafood in San Diego is C Level, down on Harbor Island. You will need a reservation.
Yelp listing:
http:// www.yelp.com/ biz/ c-level-san-diego
Posted by: Meiczyslaw at February 28, 2012 07:44 PM (bjRNS)
thanks

97
Anyone who votes for King SCOAMF deserves nothing less than total shunning. And that includes my poor sister, who for the first time in her life, is struggling. I just sent her more money in her birthday card.

She still loves the SCOAMF. When my f-i-l died a couple of weeks ago, that left my husband as the lone conservative in his entire family.

99
A dept of Energy that produces no Energy. May as well be named dept of Education, they don't produce energy either. All the nonsense from same guy that thought it a marvelous idea to paint roads and roofs white, while driving up energy costs to match what Europeans pay.

Chu on this for awhile.

Posted by: befuddled at February 28, 2012 02:46 PM (xJU23)

100
President Tire Gauge comes through...with algae. Because solar can't eat any more money now that it's dead.

Posted by: cackfinger at February 28, 2012 07:42 PM (a9mQu)

-----------------------------------

So jump on the Algae Train, boys and girls. Ole' uncle Joe is our engineer and he's rarin' to go.

Posted by: Soona at February 28, 2012 02:46 PM (EI3l3)

101The US has more active drilling rigs than the rest of the world combined

Even if that's true, so what?

It's not the rigs that are there, it's the rigs that aren't.

And I want your ass on Friday's unemployment thread, Clarence, telling us how wonderful our UE rate is that it is still short of 9%.

If it is.

Posted by: AmishDude at February 28, 2012 02:46 PM (T0NGe)

102Actually, the royal "we" is pretty common in scientific communication.

I think in Chu's case he is just dissipating responsibility.

Posted by: AmishDude at February 28, 2012 07:41 PM (T0NGe)

No. I think he's speaking for his little gang and what they want to do and saying that America can suck it. The "we"s he throws in to represent the citizenry are nothing but meaningless tokens.

Chu should be proud. He's the dumbest Nobel Laureate in Physics, ever. Man, he is really not much on the bright side. Honestly. I had given him the benefit of the doubt and assumed that he was just emotionally crippled, but it seems that he just can't think in certain simple ways.

Posted by: really ... at February 28, 2012 02:47 PM (X3lox)

103
Local envirotards are waging a war against those who dare to burn wood to heat their homes.

87The US has more active drilling rigs than the rest of the world combined (Baker Hughes data).

We have issued 362 deepwater permits in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP spill in 2010 -- Dept of Interior.

Facts have a liberal bias.

.

Clarence, you dolt. That's less than 40% of what we could be doing if not for the administration's blockade of the energy business. We live in a world oil market, and world demand is rising faster than we are increasing production.

Posted by: Meremortal at February 28, 2012 02:48 PM (Usk3+)

109
107
they will use it to start a new entitlement - gas stamps REBORN!
they get as many people on food stamps, then gas stamps - Golden Magic Era for Proggs

Wait just a minute.... I posted my first post without reading the earlier posts and now, all of a sudden, someones giving away free bj s.... what the hell? How long do I have to lurk around this dump before I get some of that sweet sweet action?

I'm sensative too... beaaaayches. Really.

Posted by: Some guy you don't know in Wisconsin at February 28, 2012 02:49 PM (QK1XT)

111
Good news for me: In a couple of years my house will run 100% fossil fuel free.

Bad news for you: You're going to be turning a crank in my generator shed.

Posted by: runninrebel at February 28, 2012 02:49 PM (N/1Dm)

112
I see the NFL is moving the first game of the year to accomodate JEPOS' convention speech. Goodell must be another Obsama Butt Boy.

114
"Secret Service wouldn't let me drive it. But they said next year when I get my big boy pants I can push on the pedals."

Posted by: The Brain in the Jar at February 28, 2012 02:49 PM (zHPKG)

115
I hope when they decide algae is the ticket to our energy woes, an errant fish of some kind does not find itself in the algae tanks, because we know we will not be allowed to bother the tank as it might hurt the fish's environment and be mean.

Politifact and the Dept of Interior says you are almost as big of liar as Obama. There were 39 shallow water permits and only 6 deepwater permits.

You are fucking liberal liar clarence.

According to the report, 39 shallow-water permits for new wells have been issued since June 8, 2010, when new rules and information requirements were put into effect. Shallow water drilling operations were not affected by the deepwater drilling moratorium following the gulf oil spill. And there were lots more shallow-water well permits issued by the Obama administration prior to June 8, 2010. Remember, Bachmann's statement referred to permits issued "under the Obama administration since they came into office."

In addition, there have been six deepwater well permits issued since Oct. 12, 2010, when the gulf moratorium was lifted. Five of those were for projects that were under way prior to the moratorium. The operators were required to come back and meet the new, modified standards

128
"The GPI documents that both deep-water and shallow-water permit issuance continue to lag the previous years average:

The three-year historical average had been seven deep-water permits issued per month; now the Obama administration has it down to two per month.

The three-year average for shallow-water drilling permits had been 14.7 per month; the Obama administration now has that down to 2.3 per month.

The average approval time has increased from an average of 60.6 days in the preceding five years to 109 days in 2011.

And more drilling plans are rejected than ever. The five-year average had been 73.4 percent approval; now its down to only 34 percent of drilling plans approved.

"Forty-nine (48% of all surveyed) companies reported laying off workers. Sixty-five (65.6%) companies surveyed reported no hiring or only replacement of lost employees. Of the companies that did hire, numbers were generally low with only one company reporting hiring over 50 workers in the last year. Some businesses have been cutting costs by reducing employees hours and/or salaries. Thirty-eight companies reported reducing hours and salaries of employees, sometimes as much as 40% in order to avoid layoffs.""

http://tinyurl.com/7dk73e2

Clarice, one day reality is going to catch up to you and kick you right in the pussy.

Posted by: weft cut-loop [/i] at February 28, 2012 02:53 PM (9Hw3U)

129
87 The US has more active drilling rigs than the rest of the world combined (Baker Hughes data).
We have issued 362 deepwater permits in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP spill in 2010 -- Dept of Interior.
Facts have a liberal bias.
Posted by: Clarence at February 28, 2012 07:43 PM (z0HdK)
Yet domestic oil recovery is still dropping and demand is increasing Clarence. No demand isn't increasing here, we have so many businesses shut down that we are now a net oil exporter. The demand is increasing over seas. Facts cherry picked by a liberal have liberal bias. Sadly they tend to be irrelevant to the question, incomplete, and carefully chosen to support a delusional narrative.
http://tinyurl.com/7uw2r6q
As of March 2011, the gulf drilling moratorium had caused 19,000 jobs lost locally and 1.1 billion in wages. We no have a lag in total oil production.
Strangely Obama is currently letting Brazil do offshore gulf drilling. Instead of us, or BP.

Posted by: cackfinger at February 28, 2012 02:53 PM (a9mQu)

130
Welcome to every GOP ad from now until November Mr. Secretary.----------------------

138
On a serious note, I wonder if they are going with this rhetoric because they know an increase in supply would have to be monumental in order to counteract the price increase, since the price increase is a result of debasing the currency.

Or, do they actually believe this nonsense will satisfy people paying $5-$8 a gallon? because I can't think of any politician who would ever think they could get re-elected with prices that high, let alone get re-elected with an economy that would result from prices that high.

141
Or, do they actually believe this nonsense will satisfy people paying $5-$8 a gallon? because I can't think of any politician who would ever think they could get re-elected with prices that high, let alone get re-elected with an economy that would result from prices that high.
Posted by: runninrebel at February 28, 2012 07:55 PM (N/1Dm)
Wait till we attack Iran, $8 a gallon is gonna feel like a bargin

The War Department is finishing up a 12.5 pound Bar-B-Q Beff Brisket for our local volunteer firefighters. I'm drinking wine and waiting to drive her and the food to the fire station. Just think, if the veg-heads had their way, millions of innocent cows would never be born to enjoy their pastoral lives, eating grass and pooping methane.

1481) killing a hobo
or
2) getting laid
Inquiring minds, and all that shit.
Posted by: Jane D'oh at February 28, 2012 07:54 PM (UOM4
Disturbingly, we aren't really sure that is an either/or proposition... are we?

Posted by: CoolCzech at February 28, 2012 02:59 PM (niZvt)

149Or, do they actually believe this nonsense will
satisfy people paying $5-$8 a gallon? because I can't think of any
politician who would ever think they could get re-elected with prices
that high, let alone get re-elected with an economy that would result
from prices that high.

155
Posted by: Some guy you don't know in Wisconsin at February 28, 2012 07:49 PM

You are off to a good start. Bitches love guys that are all sensitive 'n' shit.

Posted by: fluffy at February 28, 2012 03:03 PM (vRSeu)

156157
But what has all this to do with Contraception??
Posted by: CoolCzech at February 28, 2012 07:57 PM (niZvt)
You tell us Mr. Genius, since you're the only one so fuckingly clueless stupid to connect the two
Posted by: Ed Anger - Certified Kos Kid at February 28, 2012 08:01 PM (7+pP9)
Backing away... face towards Ed... slowly...

163
When Mr. Chu first came to washington he goes to a dinner party with his wife. At the party the stopping the Yucca mountain project was mentioned. His wife said that she knew that it had a strong scientific basis and wasn't a political decision at all because Stephen was a serious scientist and would never make a political decision when the science said something different, right Stephen? Stephen? Excuse me, Stephen?

True story.

Posted by: dagny at February 28, 2012 03:07 PM (u50z0)

164That takes me back to the post Three-Mile Island days when every hippie had a bumper sticker that read "Split wood, not atoms".

I was in TMI about a year after the accident. Was in the un-damaged reactor's control room. The problems were poor design (to see the gauge that stuck, operators had to get up and walk around the corner) and poor personnel (the person in charge the night of the accident was a high school graduate who went through a 6 week training program)

But the technology itself is beyond proven. Hell, if the French can do it... more nukes, less kooks.

Posted by: Ombudsman at February 28, 2012 03:08 PM (AxHOT)

165168 Georgetown Law Student hardest hit.
I'd point out to her anal sex is the surest form of birth control.

That wouldn't be much of a plan, especially if there is no conflict by late Spring. These prices will spark a sharp downturn before Summer if they haven't already. Then a ME conflict in Summer or Fall before the election? That could spark the doom scenario in the EU and here.

That's a nice little sub department you have there. The problem is that it is not The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement who actually issues the permits so you can you know, DRILL FOR OIL. You dumbfuck.

Five surgeons are discussing which type of patient is the easiest to work on.

The first surgeon says, "Accountants are the easiest because when you open them up everything is numbered".

The second says, "Librarians are the easiest because when you open them up everything is alphabetized".

The third says, "Electricians, because everything inside is color coded".

The fourth says, "Construction workers, because even if a few parts are missing, they find a way to fit other parts in there".

The fifth says, "Politicians. Because they have no brains, no heart, no guts, no spine, and the head and the ass are interchangeable!".

Posted by: Carl Gordon at February 28, 2012 03:13 PM (OV/3E)

172
And the biggest risk of an ME conflict is to China and it's oil supplies from the ME and Africa. Good thing they don't have much of a navy yet.

Posted by: runninrebel at February 28, 2012 03:14 PM (N/1Dm)

173175 I'd point out to her anal sex is the surest form of birth control.
Posted by: CoolCzech at February 28, 2012 08:08 PM (niZvt)
Don't forget the original oral contraceptive
Posted by: Ombudsman at February 28, 2012 08:11 PM (AxHOT)
Right.
And best of all, she'd still be a virgin. Right?

186
Just a quick observation on how gas prices are disturbing people's lives...
It cost nearly just barely under $50 to put 10 gallons in my tank today..I drove the usually jammed freeways of Socal, and to my surprise, they were wide open during the day.. Not rush hour but traffic jams are the norm anytime usually.
People have reached their breaking point.. They are staying home and not out and about because of gas prices.
This is not healthy. Obama is creating a nation of isolated hermits.. They cannot afford to leave the house
$4. 69 a gallon seemed to be the breaking point.. If it goes to $7 this country will go through something ugly.
Thanks Barack! I asshole!
This upswing is a result of him rejecting the pipeline.. People are scared of this idiot

People need to suffer sometimes, it's the only way they look up from what they are doing and pay attention. Why isn't the mesiah punishing Dick Cheney, Bush and Haliburton for pushing up oil prices. Why isn't he smacking big oil ceos upside the head and taxing the 1% more. He was supposed to pay for my mortgage, food and gas, where is my Obama money.

It isn't his fault!'

He just doesn't know!

The Republicans are blocking his reforms.

Did you hear him sing Let's Stay Together?

I don't get it, how can you want one of the most powerful positions without any of the responsibility! This country has taken a great step backward.

Posted by: Africanus at February 28, 2012 06:23 PM (fCSys)

192
I have to laugh at the people bemoaning gas being sold in their area at around $3.80 a gallon. That price was what gas at the Costco near San Jose Airport was selling for on 2/19. As of today it's $4.15 and still rising.

194
The inmates running this particular asylum seem to genuinely believe that if they, in all of their imagined imperial glory as our leaders, simply decree that the United States shall henceforth run on unicorn flatus, unicorns will appear and provide.

No amount of government funding will speed up the research process on alternate fuels. Alternate fuels are a desirable thing, and private investment will investigate any promising or even potentially profitable angle without our public money being squandered on it.

The only benefit that this particular feeding trough provides is to friends of the Administration, who under the cover of the so-called Green Industry, are bilking the American Public out of billions of dollars in the name of junk science. It wouldn't be too much of a leap to say that these projects exist more to line the pockets of the donors that operate them, fellow travellers to a man, than produce any sort of meaningful result.

It is most evident from this action, and indeed most others that this Administration has embarked upon in the past, that the Administration has no concern whatsoever for the pain of the average person.

To win this election, Republicans need to make 5 key points and stick to them.

1. Banks and Automakers got bailed out.Americans got stuck with the bills, their untenable mortgages remained unchanged and enforceable, and the automakers continue to operate a pension plan with a sideline making overpriced cars on our dime.

2. Obamacare was rolled out.The homeless will be able to be jailed for not buying health insurance.

3. Rising Gas PricesLet them eat unicorn flatus!

4. UnemploymentLet's call it Funemployment!

5. IranAs in, I ran really fast from anything that resembled leadership on this issue.

The only thing that matters to them is the agenda, results be damned. We can only hope that on Election Day, people remember the damning results.

Posted by: Cato at February 28, 2012 08:44 PM (k3C9P)

195
I don't trust this prick (Barkey) or any of his henchmen. I also truly beleive that high gasoline prices now are going to get this Bastard re-elected. Just wait until late September or early Oct. when the sonofabitch magically brings fuel prices down to $3 bucks a gallon. We stupid bastards will be so gratefull, Barkey gets re-upped. The Dems are probably walking around hacking their noodles at the sheer Audacity Of Hope!

Posted by: jdcfalcon in Vegas at February 28, 2012 10:31 PM (Xm7fl)

196
So smart yet SOOO fucking stupid. Its a wonder he walks out of the house with shoes on in the morning. These brain dead aperachicks from the ivory tower should stay there and let people who have a CLUE make the big decisions. And this ASSHAT aint got one.Clue that is.Geez, where do they grow people this fucking stupid???

Posted by: Rich K at February 29, 2012 12:40 AM (X4l3T)

197
These dudes are all smoking algae...then blowing the agae smoke up our @$$3$